Cutting off cable/satellite tv?

By artsyfartsy Dec 30, 2013

I'm toying around with the idea of cutting out our DirecTV service to save some money. We love directv and their service but I've noticed we have the habit of turning on the tv every morning and not turning it off unless we leave the house or go to bed. I want to limit T's screen time when he arrives but I can't really do that if we leave the tv on all day long!

We already have Netflix. We have an Apple TV for each TV so I can stream YouTube and dramafever. I would probably add a Hulu account if we ditched satellite. We already pay for these and use them frequently. Plus we couldn't just turn the tv to a channel and let it run continuously so we would watch less tv.

Anyone not use cable or satellite? My only concerns are news/weather. Looking for some feedback! I haven't told my husband of this idea yet so he may completely veto it...but I'm seriously considering it!

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Modern Daisy
grapefruit / 4187 posts

Dec 30, 2013

Yup! We have an HD digital antenna so we get all the networks and some bonus channels for free. On top of that we have Amazon Prime and Google Chromecast so we can stream wirelessly from our computer.

The only thing we can't get is ESPN, so during football season we do sign up for cable service, but we cancel it right after. I found after years of paying $200+/month for service that we were only watching the networks 90% of the time and I have a hard time understanding why I need to pay so much to watch constant commercials. Watching shows and movies from Amazon is great because it's like having HBO but better - no commercials and you get to choose what's on.
T.H.O.U.
wonderful clementine / 24134 posts

Dec 30, 2013

Yes, DH and I have agreed budget for cable/internet. If our provider doesn't have a promotion to keep us in that budget we are willing to get rid of it.
artsyfartsy
cantaloupe / 6692 posts

Dec 30, 2013

@Modern Daisy: you mentioned football season which reminded me of DH's NASCAR addiction. I don't know how well he will take the idea when he realizes that.
Aria
persimmon / 1121 posts

Dec 30, 2013

We got rid of cable when my husband went to grad school because we couldn't afford it. We've been without it for 4 years now and don't miss it at all! We just have Netflix and Hulu and that is more than enough.
Greentea
pomelo / 5678 posts

Dec 30, 2013

I have never had cable and only recently even had a tv. I like the local stations and pbs.
butterbean
apricot / 349 posts

Dec 30, 2013

@Danizaur: we have been toying with this idea....but i'm having a tough time wrapping my head around a couple of issues:

1) internet - we need internet so the cost of internet would be the same as the cable+internet bundle we have (at least what we've been told by our provider)....

2) news/local channels - if we were to cut off cable, we wouldn't have any of the local channels (i can part ways with my trashy reality TV shows and just watch them online)
Weagle
coconut / 8498 posts

Dec 30, 2013

We don't have cable. We use a Roku, Hulu+ Amazon Prime, and Netflix. We rarely watched network news and used our phones to check the weather when we had cable. Football season was our concern, but we either watched it at friends house or used ESPN.com.
regberadaisy
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts

Dec 30, 2013

The biggest thing stopping me is sports. Sigh DH and his sports. But I am trying to get him to compromise and cancel it in January until football starts back up in August. To which he responds what about golf? Sigh.

Bunny ears don't work in my region.
Modern Daisy
grapefruit / 4187 posts

Dec 30, 2013

@Danizaur: If you know someone with a satellite or cable account, you can always use their account online to stream ESPN - but for us it didn't work since our internet is really slow. Cutting of cable TV also meant cutting off our cable internet service. It's fast enough to stream movies from amazon or netflix, but for some reason ESPN always froze and it wasn't worth the savings to experience that while watching live games.
artsyfartsy
cantaloupe / 6692 posts

Dec 30, 2013

@butterbean: Luckily our internet and TV are already through separate companies. The Internet that is bundled with directv sucks where we live, so our internet bill wouldn't change. I don't think I'd cancel it if the cost wouldn't be beneficial.

And Internet is a non negotiable thing! Must have Internet!
Weagle
coconut / 8498 posts

Dec 30, 2013

@butterbean: Check other providers! Fios internet only is almost the same as a cable/internet bundle. We switched to Comcast, still have a higher speed than we really need, and it's less than half the price.
artsyfartsy
cantaloupe / 6692 posts

Dec 30, 2013

@Modern Daisy: True. He could also spend race day at his dad's house since his dad is as religious about NASCAR as he is. He texted me on his work break and I told him about the idea. He doesn't seem too concerned about missing races (he can keep up with every move on twitter, which he does anyway on race day) but I think he will miss it more than he thinks.
septca
GOLD / pomegranate / 3688 posts

Dec 30, 2013

We are about to cut our cable. It's not really an expense thing - we pay for Netflix and Hulu and internet anyway - it's more about productivity and quality time. DH and I have gone without cable before and we actually prefer it because it means that we plan our evenings with intention versus just tuning out in front of something lame on tv. Without cable, we sit down to watch a specific show or movie or we read, which I enjoy more anyway.

ETA: My husband also loves his sports, but he said that cutting our cable would get him to the gym more often, since they have all the channels on each machine. Done and done!
regberadaisy
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts

Dec 30, 2013

@septca: we have a home gym. And if he went out for every sporting event I would never ever see him! LOL
artsyfartsy
cantaloupe / 6692 posts

Dec 30, 2013

@septca: It will save us $100+ a month but getting out of the habit of using the tv as background noise all day long is really why I want to do it. We watch it too much and don't do much else together. I don't plan on cutting screen time completely for T but I definitely want to limit it. I don't want our son to be a tv zombie like we are!
septca
GOLD / pomegranate / 3688 posts

Dec 30, 2013

@locavore_mama: ha ha. My husband mostly wants ESPN to watch PTI, which he can get on the iPad and is only 30 minutes.
Modern Daisy
grapefruit / 4187 posts

Dec 30, 2013

@Danizaur: That's exactly what DH does when we don't get a sporting event he wants to watch. He will go to a friends house or a bar. But since we were expecting LO to arrive in August I was realistic and anticipated that we wouldn't be leaving the house much this football season and I was right lol
butterbean
apricot / 349 posts

Dec 30, 2013

@Weagle: we have Fios right now...i'll tell my DH to look into comcast!
regberadaisy
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts

Dec 30, 2013

@septca: a haha what's PTI?
My DH follows golf, hockey, football and occasionally baseball. Thankfully he only mainly watches football and golf now. Otherwise I go crazy bc hockey is like every other night!
looch
wonderful pear / 26210 posts

Dec 30, 2013

I wanted to, but my husband informed me that we couldn't get separate services for internet, cable or land line (which we need for our security system).

If you have sepearate providers, how did you go about finding them.
littlecasita1122
persimmon / 1026 posts

Dec 30, 2013

I just brought this up to my husband yesterday and asked what his thoughts were on cancelling our cable. I want to get rid of it to eliminate the temptation of just putting it on during the day when I run out of things to do to entertain my LO. We also use it for background noise in the evenings and it doesn't make sense that we're paying for it, when usually we're just on our laptops the entire evening not even paying attention to the TV. We have Roku and Amazon Prime so I don't think we'll miss much - just trying to figure out what to do for baseball and hockey for my husband. I'd like to be able to put the cable savings each month to a gym membership instead.
birdofafeather
pineapple / 12053 posts

Dec 30, 2013

@butterbean: local channels are free! i'm looking into getting a digital antenna for them.

we've been using hulu plus, amazon prime and netflix successfully for 2.5 years (we have a roku to stream these) and i only miss cable for HGTV.
artsyfartsy
cantaloupe / 6692 posts

Dec 30, 2013

@looch: Easy. We live out in the boonies so we only are able to use 2 different providers. The service bundled with directv (ATT) which we had and was AWFUL. What we have now is the only other service that provided to us, time warner. Luckily they rock!!
Mommy Finger
pomegranate / 3272 posts

Dec 30, 2013

I would love to cut cable as well but was told that we can't because of sports
artsyfartsy
cantaloupe / 6692 posts

Dec 30, 2013

@littlecasita1122: Exactly. We play on the ipad/phones/laptop and don't even pay attention to the tv. Our Internet addiction is another problem...lol.
birdofafeather
pineapple / 12053 posts

Dec 30, 2013

@looch: all of our local places off internet a la carte, but i do know that att offers pretty fast cable internet, but you HAVE to have tv to get the cable. so when we had that, we had a different internet connection.
littlecasita1122
persimmon / 1026 posts

Dec 30, 2013

@Danizaur: Lol yup I figured we'd tackle the TV addiction first, give it a few months and see how it goes, then move onto slowly limiting Internet time...sigh!
looch
wonderful pear / 26210 posts

Dec 30, 2013

I should probably research! Internet and the land line are not negotiable, but I feel like we use the TV/cable less than 2 hours a month, so I don't really want to keep paying for it.
artsyfartsy
cantaloupe / 6692 posts

Dec 30, 2013

I think we are gonna do it! DH seems excited about it. He does love saving money. Haha.

The only thing is my one single show that I make an effort to watch live when it airs and I NEVER miss an episode of, Pretty Little Liars is not available on hulu plus on my Apple TV.

I can watch it on my ipad the day after it airs on the ABC family app or on the computer but DH watches with me and it'll be sucky watching it on the computer or using mirroring on the Apple TV because the video is much smaller.

Oh well!
Kimberlybee
grapefruit / 4997 posts

Dec 30, 2013

I am thinking of canceling our DirecTV service also. We have been their loyal customer since 2001 but have only seen price increase after price increase. The new customers get such better promotions!
artsyfartsy
cantaloupe / 6692 posts

Dec 30, 2013

@Kimberlybee: Yeah when I brought it up to DH he said next month we are getting a $20 a month increase on our bill. Ugh.
regberadaisy
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts

Dec 30, 2013

@Kimberlybee: they respond very well to cancellation threats.
dojo
persimmon / 1223 posts

Dec 30, 2013

We just did it a couple months ago! I don't even miss it! DH misses being able to watch games but he just goes to his parents to watch for now. We got an antenna thing at Costco but haven't really figured out how to get a good signal yet. We use apple tv to watch Netflix (we share my parent's account) and Hulu then we have a blueray player to watch Amazon Prime. Between all of that we have more than enough for the small amount of time we watch tv.

I thought I would miss some of the shows we watched before but really I hardly noticed a difference. The savings is worth it!
Penny Lane
nectarine / 2163 posts

Dec 30, 2013

we've never had cable tv! we don't even have the set up to get the free to air channels. we read news and weather online, and DH finds ways to stream his sports stuff online too

honestly, we wouldn't even own a TV set if it wasn't for the xbox
artsyfartsy
cantaloupe / 6692 posts

Dec 30, 2013

@dojo: Yeah we have netflix (that we share with like 8 other family members lol), dramafever, YouTube, Hulu which I just got, plus all of the extra things the Apple TV came with. Then whatever you can find on the Internet, which is just about anything.

If that's not enough to keep us entertained I don't know what is.
Mrs. Lemon-Lime
wonderful pea / 17279 posts

Dec 30, 2013

@Danizaur: we recently cut our direct tv premium package with sports down to the bare minimum. Nothing was ever o TV and we used our Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, and Amazon Prime via Roku all the time anyway. We cut our bill in half and feel so much better. Do it!
artsyfartsy
cantaloupe / 6692 posts

Dec 30, 2013

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: It's done! DH just got off the phone with them canceling our service. We won't have TV after midnight tonight!
Mrs. Lemon-Lime
wonderful pea / 17279 posts

Dec 30, 2013

@Danizaur: yay! You did good!
Mammabare
grape / 92 posts

Dec 30, 2013

We have a roku and HD antennae. We can get local news with that. And roku has news channels as well. We also have amazon prime and Netflix. Well worth the savings!